140 



NA TURE 



IDcc. 6, 1883 



.So tliiit I am sure you will iieilher niisunderstand me, nor 

 miJike my directness of speech, when I say that, if it please you 

 to believe that the interests of science and of the Royal Society 

 will be advanced by maintaining me in tlie very distinguished 

 position which I at present occupy, I will do my best to justify 

 your confidence ; but if, as may well be, you think that some 

 other Fellow of the Society will serve these interests better, I 

 shall, with a light heart, transfer to him the honourable burden, 

 which I have already borne long enough to know its weight. 



I now proceed to the presentation of the medals which have 

 this year been awarded by the Council. 



The number, the variety, acd the importance of Sir William 

 Thomson's contiibutions to mathematical and experimental 

 physics are matters of common knowledge, and the Fellows of 

 the Society « ill be more gr.ntified than surprised to hear that the 

 Council have this year awarded him the Copley Medal, the 

 highest honour which it is in their power to bestow. 



Sir William Thomson has taken a foremost place among 

 those to v\hom the remarkable development of the theory of 

 thermodynamics and of electricity in the last forty years is due ; 

 his share in the experimental treatment of these subjects has 

 been no less considerable; while his constructive ability in 

 applying science to practice is manifested by the number of in- 

 struments, bearing his name, which are at present in use in the 

 physical laboratory and in the telegraph office. 



Morfover, in prrpourding his views on the universal di-sipa- 

 tion of energy and on vortex motion and molecular vortices, .Sir 

 William Thou son has propounded conceptions which belong to 

 the frima philosophia of j'hysical science, and will assuredly lead 

 the physicist nf the future to attempt once more to grapple with 

 those problems concerning the ultimate construction of the 

 material world, which Descartes and Leibnitz attempted to 

 solve, but which have been sedulously ignorei by most of their 

 successors. 



One Royal Medal has been awarded to Dr. T. Archer Hirst, 

 F.R.S., for his investigations in pure geometry ; and, more par- 

 ticularly, for his re-earches into the correlation of two planes 

 and into the complexes generated by them. 



The other Royal Medal has been awarded to Dr. J. S. Burdon 

 Sanderson, F.R.S., for the eminent services which he has ren- 

 dered to physiology and pathology ; and, especially, for his 

 researches on the electrical phenomena exhibited by plants, and 

 for his investigations into the relation of minute organisms to 

 disease. 



In making this aw ard, the Council desire not merely to recog- 

 nise the merit of Dr. Burdon Sanderson's researches, especially 

 those on the analogy between the electrical changes which take 

 place in the contractile tissues of plants and those which occur 

 in the like tisues of animals ; but to mark their sense of the 

 important influence which Dr. Sanderson has exerted upon the 

 study of phyiohgy and pathology in this country. 



The Davy Medal has this year been a^ain awarded in dupli- 

 cate, the reci;ient being M. Morcellin Berthelot, Member of 

 the Institute of France, and Foreign Member of the Royal 

 Society, and Prof. Julius Thomsen, of Copenhagen. 



The thermo-chemical researches of Berthelot and Thomsen 

 have extended over many years, and have involved an immense 

 amount of work, partly in the application of established methods 

 to new cases, partly in devising new methods and applying them 

 to cases in which the older methods were not applicable. 

 Chemists had identified a vast variety of substances, and had 

 determined the exact compi^sition of nearly all of thein, but of 

 the forces which held together the elements of each compound 

 they knew but little. It was known that certain elements com- 

 bine with one another with grent tvolution of heat-forming pro- 

 ducts in which they are firmly united ; while other elements 

 combine but feebly, and with little evolution of heat. But the 

 materials for forming any general theory of the forces of chemical 

 combination were but scanty -and imperfect. 



The labours of Messrs. Berthelct and Thomsen have done 

 much towards supplying that want, and they will be of the 

 utmost value for the advancement of chemical science. 



THE JAVA DISASTER 

 'T'HE following letter from the Liverpool Daily Fast, received 

 -^ from Capt. W. J. Watson, of the British ship Charles Bal, 

 contains a graphic and interesting account of the recent terrible 

 volcanic outburst in .Sunda Straits. Capt. W. J. Watson w'as 

 himself an eye-witness of what he describes. His vessel was 



actually within the Straits, and not far from Krakatoa when that 

 island had become an active volcano : — • 



" August 22, 15° 30' S., 105° E. — About 7 p.m. the set sud- 

 denly assumed a milky-white appearance, beginning to the east 

 of us, but soon spreading all round, and lasting till 8 p.m. 

 There were some clouds (cumulus) in the sky, but many stars 

 shone, and in the east to north-east a strong, white haze or sil- 

 very glare. This occurred again between 9 and 10 p.m , the 

 clouds also appearing to be edged with a pinkish coloured b^ht, 

 the whole sky al-o seeming to have extra light in it, similar to 

 when the aurora is showing faintly. On the 24th, in 9° 30' .S. 

 105° E., we had a repetition of the above. On the night of the 

 25th, standing in for Java Head, the land was covered with 

 thick, dark clouds and heavy lightning. On the 26th, about 

 9 a.m., pased Prince's I-land, wind south-west, and s ime 

 heavy rain ; at noon, wind west-south-west, weather fine, the 

 Island of Krakatna to the north-east of us, but only a ■ mall 

 portion of the north-east point, close to the water, show ing ; 

 rest of the inland covered with a dense black cloud. At 2.30 

 p.m. noticed some agitation about the Point of Krai atoa ; 

 clouds or something being propelled from the north-east point 

 with great velocity. At 3.30 we heard above us and about the 

 island a strange sound as of a mighty, crackling fire, or the dis- 

 charge of heavy artillery at second intervals of time. At 4 15 

 p.m., Krakatoa mrth h.alf east, ten miles distant, observed a 

 repetition of that mted at 2.30, only much more furious and 

 alarniing, the matter, whatever it was, being propelled with 

 amaiing velocity to the north-east. To us it looked like blind- 

 ing rain, and had the appearance of a furious squall of ashen 

 hue. At once shortened sail to topsads and foresail. At five 

 the roaring noi-e continued and increased ; wind moderate from 

 south south-west ; darkness spread over the sky, and a hail of 

 pumice-stone fell on u-, many pieces being of considcr.rble 

 size and quite warm. Had to cover up the skylights to 

 save the glass, while feet and head had to be protected 

 with boots and southwesters. About six o'clock the fall of 

 larger stones ceased, but there continued a steady fall of a 

 smaller kind, most blinding to the eyes, and covering the decks 

 to three or four inches very speedily, while an intense blackness 

 covered the sky and land and sea. Sailed on our course until 

 we got what we thought was a sight of Fourth Point Light ; 

 then brought ship to the wind, south-west, as we could not 

 se- any distance, and we knew not what might be in the 

 Straits, the night being a fearful one. The blinding fa.l of 

 sand and stones, the intense blackness above and around us, 

 broken only by the incessant glare of vaned kinds of lightning 

 and the continued explosive roars of Krakatoa, made our 

 situation a truly awful one. At II p.m., having stood oft 

 from the Java shore, wind strong from the south-west, the 

 island, west-north-wesr, eleven miles distant, became more 

 visible, chains of fire appearing to ascend and descend betw een 

 the sky and it, while on the south west end there seen;ed to be 

 a continued roll of balls of white fire ; the wind, though strong, 

 was hot and choking, sulphureous, with a smell as of burning 

 cinders, some of the pieces falling on Ui being like iron cinders, 

 and the lead from a bottom of thirty fathoms came up quite 

 warm. From midnijiht to 4 a.m. (27th) wind strong, but very 

 unsteady, between .sou h-south-west and west- south-west, the 

 same impenetrable darkness continuing, the roaring of Krakatoa 

 less continuous, but more explosive in sound, the sky one second 

 intense blackness and the next a blaze of fire, mastheads and 

 yardarms studded with corpo-ants and a peculiar pinky flame 

 coming from clouds which seemed to touch the mjistheads and 

 yardarms. At 6 a.m , being able to make out the Java shore, 

 set sail, passing Fourth Point Lighthou-e at 8 ; hois' ed our 

 signal letters, but got no answer. Passed A njer at 8.30, name 

 still hoisted, close enough in to make out the houses, but 

 could see no movement if any kind ; in fact, through the whole 

 Straits we have nut seen a single moving thing of any kind on 

 sea or land. At 10.15 a.m. passed the Button Island one- 

 ha'f to three-quarters of a mile off; sea like glass round it, 

 weather much finer looking, and no ash or cinders falling; 

 wind at south-e.ast, light. kX 1 1. IS there was a fearful 

 explosion in the direction of Krakatoa, now over thirty miles 

 distant. We saw a wave rush right on to the Button Island, 

 apiiarently sweeping right over the south part, and rising half 

 way up the north and east sides. This we saw repea'ed twice, 

 but the helmsman says he saw it once before we looked. The 

 same w ave seemed also to run right on to the Java shore. At 

 the same time the sky rapidly covered in ; the wind came strong 



